A Flicker Of Red
by penpaperlaptop
Summary: What if Jason and Polly's relationship never worked out? What if Polly starts to fall for the boy next door, the same boy her sister was in love with? Told in the perspectives of several different characters, get to know the even more twisted and dark plotline that surrounds Riverdale. *Rated T for language and sexual content* *I do not own Riverdale or the characters*
1. Chapter 1

Polly

I was sitting outside the gates at the Blossom mansion. Jason was supposed the be by the barn, waiting for me to flash my light three times in his direction. Our meetings had to be secret, a secret from my family, a secret from his.

His red hair became visible amidst all the fog that covered the streets of Riverdale. He smiled when he saw my face, so I flashed my pearly whites back at him. I still hadn't changed out of my River Vixens uniform because I couldn't walk through the front door of my own home without being interrogated by my mother. He kissed the top of my head and pulled me over to the end of the driveway. "Pops?" I nodded and got into the car.

Pop Tate was behind the counter serving food to a girl I had seen at school before. He looked up at Jason and smiled, "two chocolate milkshakes coming right up!" I smiled back at him as Jason threw the ten dollar bill in the 'tip' jar.

I sat in the booth in the back, the one that is the most hidden from the other people in the diner. Jason slid in next to me and put his hand on my leg. "How was practice?" He asked in all sincerity.

"It went well other than the fact that your sister wouldn't stop trying to ask me about you and me." Cheryl knew about Jason and me because of Jason. Jason told her the truth because she was the only one in their family who he truly cared about. The only one who wasn't a crazy. I on the other hand wasn't a Cheryl advocate. In the back of my mind, I feared what she would do knowing the information that she knew. Betty would tell me about how some things she would do during their 3rd-period science class together and I would stare at her eyes and shake my head. The way Betty described her didn't match with the descriptions Jason would tell. I was always stuck in that triangle wondering who I should trust.

"Look," he placed his hand on my upper thigh and smiled at me, "she just wants the best for me, she's just being protective."

"And am I the best thing for you?" He made an uneasy face that scared me. There was a pause, a long pause and I just sat there waiting for him to say something, but all he did was take a sip of his milkshake. "Jason!" I hit his hand off my leg and he just laughed. "Jason!"

"I'm just messing with you, of course you're the best thing for me." He ran his fingers through my blonde ponytail, which made me look a lot like Betty, too much like her. I hit his hand away and he shot me a creepy look. "Polly, what's the matter with you?"

"What's the matter with me?!" I was mad now. If I wasn't mad before, then I definitely was now. The next door neighbor boy who Betty was obsessed with, Archie Andrews, walked to the back of the room and waved to me. I waved to him back for the sake of Betty, but that smile was something that was harder to do than it needed to be. "Jason! Are actually serious?!"

"What? Polly, you're being ridiculous," he stood up from his spot at the booth and tried to walk over to me. I backed away from him, but he kept coming closer and closer.

"Oh, me ridiculous?! You are so stupid Jason, you and all your football friends. I know about that notebook and what you wrote in it. Why do you want to go and talk about all those girls behind their backs? So whatever, we had sex, but that doesn't mean anything. Do you think it's easy for me to constantly go behind both our family's backs? You realize you're the one who ruined my relationships with them? Did you? Did you know that you're the reason they won't say any more than three words to me? You just are so selfish Jason, you only care about you and your sister, f**k your sister for God's sake, she's just going to betray us like everyone else in our da**ed families." My head was spinning, I was rattling off a list of all the terrible things Jason has said to me in the past year we had been dating for. I was about to continue going but choked on my own saliva, making the whole fight a whole lot less dramatic. I didn't know what to do anymore, so I began to back away from his cold stare. A single tear fell from the corner of his eye and he sniffled his nose a little, tiny bit. It helped me to know that he too had emotions, not the emotions he should have, but deep down Jason Blossom had feelings.

"Polly, are you okay?" Pop asked me from his spot behind the counter. I kept backing up until I was walking out the door. I realized I didn't have a car and I couldn't call my mother because of the risk of her finding out about us. I wish Betty could just drive already. I heard the door of the diner close and saw a glimpse of red hair appear in the corner of my eye. I assumed it was just Jason, so I kept on walking.

"Hey, do you need a ride?" I looked behind me knowing that voice was not Jason's but a voice of a boy who had just recently gone through puberty. His hair was almost the same color of Jason's just a little bit darker. "Really it's no problem, we live right next to each other."

I forced myself to smile at him and nodded my head, "thanks." He called for his dad from the door and out came walking Fred Andrews. He shook my hand and asked me how my parents had been. "Good," I told him, which was an obvious lie. Archie laughed, knowing too that I had been lying.

The car ride was a little awkward. Fred had the radio up pretty loud and he and Archie were chatting away, inviting me into the conversation every here or there. I was too upset to say anything but, 'yea.'

We got to their driveway and Archie hopped out the car, "I can walk you home." I looked over at Fred who was already walking into the pathway to their house. My house was only a few steps out of the driveway but I excepted his offer with a simple nod of my head.

We got into the front of my house without saying one word to each other until he broke the silence, "so are you okay?"

"Yea," I brushed the piece of hair behind my ear and gave him a fake smile, just like the one before.

"Really? Because you didn't seem fine at Pop's." I wanted to yell at him, but I realized he was just trying to help, so I let him see my real reaction. A frown and tears. I knew my mascara was going to be smeared all over my face and that my eyeshadow was a great big mess. He gathered me into his arms as I cried and cried and cried.

Finally, I stopped and Betty came walking down the driveway. "Polly," she said in her sympathetic but worried voice. "Arch, why are you here?" I could feel the tone of jealousy come from her voice, but I was too much of a mess to point it out. I felt her tiny little hands touch my right shoulder as I began to cry again. "Polly."

I knew why Jason wasn't responding, he wasn't sure if Betty knew about Jason and me together. "She knows Archie," that phrase made me cry even more, which I didn't know could be possible. I started to try and take deep breaths every here and there but none of it worked. I only calmed down when Archie moved his hands from the bottom of my back to the top of my head. He stroked through my ponytail, something my dad used to do before he got too caught up in work.

I could only half see Betty, but her eyes were open wide as Archie told her the whole story. I tried to not listen and I think Archie kept his hands closer to my ears to keep me from hearing what he was telling Betty. I did know when he stopped telling the story when Betty touched my back and motioned her hand for me to come into the house with her. "Polly, Mom and Dad aren't home." For once in my life I didn't want to go and fall into the comfort of my loving sister, I was perfectly fine standing here with Archie calmingly stroking my hair. I knew she would kill me if I did stay because she was obsessed with Archie and I would never ever want to make my sister mad. She was one of the only people who still liked me anymore.

She pushed open the front door and I walked in behind her, "you must be freezing." She walked into the living room and turned the heat up from the dial on the wall. The house made this loud noise which made it sound like an earthquake was passing through. "I'll go make you a hot chocolate." I shook my head and went to sit at the kitchen table. My phone buzzed but I ignored it, only because I didn't even want to see the word, Jason. I was still in my Vixens uniform and I needed to get it off as soon as I could. On it was the same yellow R that was on the top of Jason's varsity jacket.

I walked up into my room when Betty's back was turned to me. Pictures of Jason were spread across my pale purple walls, walls that coordinated with Polly's perfectly. I wanted to rip them all down, but I knew that I would regret that choice later down the road. As much as I say that I won't ever look at him again and not fall in love with those deep colored eyes that you couldn't tell were a brown or a deep green, I knew I couldn't. He was to manipulative. He knew my strengths and my weaknesses, which gave him the perfect information to plot a plan against me. I didn't want the label of Jason Blossom's girlfriend, but I knew it was a label that would stick with me even if he would die tomorrow.

I pulled open the drawer of my dresser and stared at the array of clothes. Every color of every t-shirt just staring back at me yelling, Pick me! Half of the shirts were Jason's, I wore them when I wanted to make the other girls at school jealous that he was mine and not there's. I went with the shirt Betty had bought me on her field trip to the zoo about two years ago. Recently, the Riverdale school district had cut all field trips because of low funding, so I kept this t-shirt just to remind me of the good old days. When I wore my hair in pigtails and put stole my mom's eyeshadow to smear all over my cheeks like highlighter.

The sweatpants I put on were a little small, which was expected because they too were a pair of Betty's, but at this moment I did not care one little bit. "Pol's you okay?" She yelled up the stairs. When Betty called me Pol's you knew something bad was going on. It was a comforting word for me, it hit my ears just right and a made me feel loved again for just a little moment.

"Yea, I'm coming down." I walked down the creaky staircase and walked back into my seat at the kitchen table. Betty had a nice and warm hot chocolate sat in front of my face. It was just the perfect temperature, not too cold, not too hot. "Thanks," I told her. I always hated making Betty clean up my messes for me. I was her older sister, I should be the one who should be helping her. I knew she was staying quiet because she was a little jealous that I was standing in the driveway holding Archie's body against mine. I wanted to say something, but I feel like I would just make everything worse, so I just sat there sipping my drink, thinking about all the things I should have told Jason. Stupid saliva.


	2. Chapter 2

Archie

I threw the bag of take-out dad had left in the car in the refrigerator and took a seat on the stool at the kitchen island. I felt bad for just leaving Polly out in the front yard, but Betty was there, the cure for the hardest pain. Honestly, I wanted to stand their, in that half frozen driveway, with Polly in my arms. I was always so terrible at helping people, making them feel better, but I felt like I did something good today. I mean I did save her from that evil Jason Blossom.

 _Polly just ran out the front door at Pops. I was standing in the back, playing a quick game of pinball while I waited for Dad to grab us dinner. Jason Blossom took the phone had had just taken out of his back pocket and slammed it against the booth they were just sat at. "God damn it!"_

 _His eyes met mine and he pointed right at me. I was honestly a little nervous in that moment, he had this evil look in his eye and I could just tell his teeth were clenched. The exact face he made when he was about to tackle the opponent in football. "You don't tell anyone, you hear me Andrews?" He was walking closer and closer to me, so I hopped over the booth right by the machine. Pop was too busy at the counter to notice what was going on and Dad was too busy talking to some guy who worked at the site._

Her sad, forced smile popped into my mind and I felt guilty not knowing right then and there that something was wrong."Who was that girl? I feel like I've seen her before, just I couldn't put the name with the face." He walked past me and ruffled my hair. I half smiled until I realized that he wouldn't be able to see me.

"Oh, it was Polly Cooper, you know, Betty's sister," I didn't make eye contact with him but I knew he was looking at me.

"Oh, yea!" He slapped his hand down on the table and chuckled. "Isn't that your buddies girlfriend...Jason?"

I winced at the sound of those five letters put together, "yea, I guess." I took my jacket off and ran upstairs into my bedroom. Betty wasn't sitting on her bed, waiting for me to signal at her to talk. That was something we rarely did anymore. If anything, she was the one who signaled now, I had given up on our relationship a while ago. Our romantic relationship anyway.

I shut my blinds just In case she was there, just hiding behind the curtain. I rummaged through the drawer where I kept all the song lyrics I had written in the past few weeks since I discovered my enjoyment for writing lyrics. Piles on piles of white and blue lined paper were piled together or glued into the notebook Mom sent me in the mail, randomly. I wondered if Dad told her about my writing, but they never really talked to each other anymore, so I don't know how that would have been possible.

I flipped to page 157, where my latest song had been written down. The lyrics were staring back at me and I just sang the tune I had made in my guitar. Mmmhhh mmmhh hhmmmm mh mhm mhm. I hated it. Well, I hated it with the lyrics. So I took the black sharpie out of the pen mug and scribbled all over the page.

I was starting to think about how I could change the lyrics, make them better, but all my mind could think about was Polly. A song. A song about a bad relationship. A bad relationship I wanted to end, not necessarily her. My mind was racing a million miles every single second. Words were scribbled all over the page. Some scribbled out, others underlined, one, two, three times. I was left staring at the notebook page with squinted eyes and a smirk on my face. I didn't hate it.

My dad knocked on my door and I flipped to a random page in my notebook before I yelled for him to come in. He had the home phone in his hand, "It's Betty, she says you wouldn't pick up your phone, so she just called here." He was smiling and I was guessing it was because he thought a still had a crush on Betty. I mean, everyone knew I stopped liking her for a while, well, everyone but Betty and my dad.

He tossed me the phone and I rolled my eyes as he turned away. I didn't want to be mean to Betty but holding this act was getting old. "Hey Betty," I said in my most monotone voice ever. I could picture her sitting at the end of her bed, waiting for me to open the curtain and watch her watch me. "What do you need?"

"Um, I just wanted to say thanks for helping Polly," she told me. I could imagine the look on her face, her eyes would be bright and she would have that signature Betty Cooper smile slapped across her face. "But, like, next time maybe call me, you don't really need to help." I did a small roll of my eyes and slapped my hands on the table.

I sighed, "well my bad Betty." It came out half sarcastic and half serious, two things Betty wasn't the fondest of. I could hear her bed springs loosen as she stood up and walked to her window that faced me.

"Arch, are you okay?" The concern in her voice was loud and clear. "Come to your window."

I should have stood up, looked out of the window, made little Betty Cooper's heart happy by proving to her I was fine and dandy. Instead, I stayed sitting at my desk, looking over the finished lyrics, frowning at her not them. "No Betty."

`"Um, Archie, seriously, what's going on?" I shook my head, tempted to just hang up the phone, but I figured I had a little bit of decency left in my system.

"No Betty, I can't just be at your beck and call all the damn time okay? I need some space," she hesitated to say my name as I hit the 'end call' button on the bottom right corner. It was true, I needed space. I loved Betty don't get me wrong, but not in the way she thinks I do.

After an hour of thinking, thinking, over thinking, I walked up to the door of the Cooper's house and knocked twice. Mrs. Cooper opened the door. She had her glasses on her face and a pair of pajama pants matched with a shirt that she must have worn to work today. "Yes Archie," she half asked as I shoved my hands in and out of the pockets of my sweatshirt.

"Um, hey Mrs. Cooper, I was wondering if I could come in, talk to Betty." That was kind of a lie. My whole point was to come and see Polly, to be honest. I had the lyrics in my back pocket, not to show her, just to use as my security blanket.

"Well I'm not sure that Betty wants to see you," she told me in a weird tone of voice. I heard the floorboards creak and saw a blonde head of hair walking towards the door. Polly. She had taken it out of the ponytail she had it in earlier and combed it out, letting it lay just beyond her shoulders. Her face lit up when she saw my face, I could feel mine doing the same.

"Hey Archie," she said waving. Her mom looked behind her, lowering glasses probably because Polly and I had never shown each other very much attention. "Come in," she motioned her hand into the house as she pushed her mom away from the entrance. I took a few steps inside waiting for Polly to take the lead, guiding me into the dining room.

"Uh, sorry," I said. I was fidgeting with my hands and she was smiling at me and my nervousness.

"What are sorry for?" I felt stupid saying 'I'm sorry' in my stupid voice with my stupid fidgeting hands. I couldn't take my mind off of the note in my back pocket. you're not his. My mind kept playing those lyrics over and over in my mind.

"Um, Betty called and told me that you wanted her to just help her I guess." My hands were back at it, tap, tap, tapping on the table. I couldn't remember exactly what Betty told me on the phone, but I feel like it was something along the lines. I hoped it was something along those lines. Polly laughed at me and shook her head. She sat her hands on top of the table, inches away from mine. I tried to get them to stop shaking, but they wouldn't. In the back of my mind I was scared that Jason would show up to the front door, beat the h*ll out of me, and then Polly would run into his arms, only to be hurt by him once again.

"Oh Betty, Betty, Betty," she said as she shook her head back and forth. I rose my left eyebrow, "she's just jealous." Understandable. I just didn't expect Polly to admit that so soon. She laughed, I don't know if it was directed towards me or her conclusion about Betty. "Look, Archie, she's always going to be jealous. You could be talking to one of the nerdiest girls at school and she would secretly hate them for the rest of her whole damn life. Now, she's pretty mad at me right now because, in Betty's mind, we just went to second base, hugging. She's being a ridiculous version of herself. You see, in her mind, Betty creates these crazy theories about these girls and you when you just simply give them a hug. She's up in her room right now trying to sleep, but instead thinking of what will happen between me and you, which is ridiculous because I'm dating Jason." I nodded. I hated when she said that out loud, 'I'm dating Jason.' She didn't even say it right. She said it like it was more of a chore than a choice.

I pushed my chair back and got up, "I should probably go now." That was a lie and I knew she could tell. She pushed her chair back and walked with me outside to the front of my driveway. It was cold out and she had no jacket on. All she had on was this old short sleeve t-shirt and her arms were wrapped around herself, just like they were when the sun was out, shining on a rather gloomy day. I wanted to ask her why she followed me or what she really wanted from me, but I couldn't. I'd rather not ruin my relationship with her like I apparently had with Betty many many times.

"Thank you so much, Archie, for today, what you did was so amazing," I smirked at her and she smiled back.

"Goodnight Polly."

"Night Archie," she took a few steps towards me then pulled me in for a hug. I hugged her back as I scanned around, wary that Jason was watching me hug his girlfriend because apparently, that was a thing that made people mad. The paper was in my back pocket and I was starting to freak out, worried that she was going to find it. It's like a ring I was going to propose to her with.

I walked up my driveway, into the the front door, and opened the door in my room. Before I threw my clothes off to go to bed, I pushed my curtain away and looked into Betty's window. She was laying in her bed, the only light was the light coming from her phone screen. She didn't look over at me, check to see if I was looking at her, she just laid there, the only movement was her finger scrolling through what I was guessing, Instagram.

I covered the window back up and threw off all my clothes other than my underwear. My phone was still sitting on my desk so I picked it up and texted Betty goodnight. 5, 10, 15 minutes passed. No reply. I shut my eyes and drifted off to sleep, thinking about those two Cooper girls and how they were slowly tearing my heart apart.


End file.
